All the details of Felipe VI’s Christmas message: the great presence of Leonor in the staging

Felipe VI’s ninth Christmas speech as King. The head of state has begun with two words to define this 2022 that is leaving us: “Complicated and difficult”. It has been a Europeanist, integrating discourse, which calls for a commitment to Ukraine, to the European Union as the “backbone” and, above all, in which it has made explicit reference to the need to “strengthen the institutions” after the crisis without precedents.

On the table, a photograph of the Kings at the NATO Summit in Madrid. In the staging, in the Audience Hall of the Palacio de la Zarzuela, two flags: that of Spain and that of the European Union. They have accompanied the monarch a Christmas tree and the mystery with the birth of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, from the private collection. This has been the scenery. The form of the message: 11 minutes and 38 seconds. 1,446 words.

Three issues were included in the forecasts of the script. Inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a war that is about to complete a year and the thorniest, the institutional crisis. It has made full The fact that Felipe VI had a word in his Christmas speech connected to the institutional crisis due to the drift that the suspension of the Constitutional Court to the parliamentary process of the reform of his own renewal has meant was even more difficult. The King must keep neutrality. Hence the enormous expectation that this stumbling block had aroused. The words that the monarch has pronounced on this difficult point have been the following: “Democracies are exposed to many risks (…) Division, the deterioration of coexistence and the erosion of institutions.” On this last point, he qualified: “We need to strengthen our institutions. They must be solid, protect citizens, attend to their concerns, guarantee their rights and support families.”

Princess Leonor, in five photographs

After the speech and the national anthem, we have seen seven photographs (lower images of Casa del Rey). In five of them, Princess Leonor appears.

They are portraits that have been taken from different official acts that the Princess of Asturias has attended throughout 2022. With Ukrainian refugee families, at the Pozuelo Reception, Care and Referral Center (CREADE), in Madrid; an image with her father at the Princess of Asturias Awards, in Oviedo; two photos in activities related to the Princess of Girona Foundation awards (in Barcelona and in Figueres); and an image with her sister Sofía de ella in the United Kingdom. A greater presence of Leonor, due to her status as heiressand because this incoming 2023 is the year in which he reaches the age of majority and will swear the Constitution. A historic act that symbolizes the continuity and permanence of the institution. Queen Letizia, with the red volunteer vest, also appears on her cooperation trip to Mauritania.